My questions: 1: As someone who never invested on my own - what can I expect if I make a move? What are the challenges? Even doing something as simple as the backdoor ROTH IRA $5,500 (now 6K) contribution I do yearly for my wife seems quite daunting to me if I did it on my own. 2: Is it normal ...

OK, a little more context here. The daughter is convinced that summer internships are of upmost importance and how everyone gets ahead in her field. Since last fall she has been applying for everything she can find all over the country but the ones that sound the coolest are also uber competitive a...

So then what is this website saying that with the new laws from 2018 that were passed, there is a 0% capital gains tax if income was less than 38,600? Do the actual capital gains count as part of that income? https://www.nerdwallet.com/blog/taxes/capital-gains-tax-rates/ This one also says 0% - for...

This needs to go. Why do you keep saying expenses need to be cut? Yes, OP spends quite a lot, but he isn't trying to climb out of debt or figure out how to start saving. OP saves, with employer match, a healthy 25% of income. Because the numbers are large, this also allows for the possibility of qu...

So then what is this website saying that with the new laws from 2018 that were passed, there is a 0% capital gains tax if income was less than 38,600? Do the actual capital gains count as part of that income? https://www.nerdwallet.com/blog/taxes/capital-gains-tax-rates/ This one also says 0% - for...

OP, I commend you on being a good sport. Many of the responses have focused on your spending. I agree it is quite high ($87k in discretionary spending, your can't fathom how someone if a VCHOL can get by on $2,300/mo after expenses) but I don't think it is the immediate problem others have suggested...

Why do you want to buy a house? I'm scared that house prices in the Bay area will keep rising and be out of my reach forever. So my thought is lock in a house now or in the near future to avoid being priced out forever What kind of house would you buy now as a single person that you 1) want to live...

OP, you’ve had 3 pages of responses of both personal and secondhand experience addressing (often very specifically) why they don’t buy rental properties. And yet you have refused to answer any of the questions regarding specifics of how you’re profiting $40k a year off of a single rental property, ...

A. Move it all now. That seems the least scary to me. Watching the performance of a whole bunch of individual stocks and trying to time moving them to an index fund sounds much scarier. Plus a headache. Plus more costly - if you wait you'll probably have capital gains taxes to pay. Take advantage of...

Thanks, all. After trying too many to mention, I went with Columbia Fairbanks Omni-heat. Very comfortable for all-day use, very warm, not great on ice. Couldn't find one that checked all of those boxes.

Yes, I'm in my late 30s and I have all bonds in my tax-deferred account, to reach my desired asset allocation in a tax-efficient manner. If given the choice, I'd rather have the growth from equities in my taxable account rather than tax-deferred. I've already reaped the tax benefit on the contributi...

You can put 50% down (from cash and condo sale) and still have about $200k cash emergency fund and about $2m invested. You make ~$600k/yr, probably averaging more. After taxes, more like $375-400k or more. You can take the 10 year ARM on the $925k balance and pay it down in those 10 years, which req...

I stand by my earlier comments that “I’m pretty sure that when I receive dividends from my Total Stock Market fund, none of my shares are being sold off” and “when I receive dividends from a single company, I absolutely do not own fewer shares of it when the dividend is paid. I own 100 shares the d...

We used to have an advisor who picked many winners, to the point that I have the welcome problem of having to many gains to easily simplify my portfolio. There's definitely survivorship bias, so I don't know the losers. I've picked three stocks myself (told the advisor to buy). One lost about half i...

You can simplify your 401k's with no tax consequences. That's a good place for your bond allocation for tax efficiency. Your taxable account has pretty bad expenses ratios (on top of the surprisingly reasonable advisor fee). I was in a similar situation a couple of years ago, left the advisor, and h...

It's pretty funny that someone thinks people all over the country are buying, and people on this site are recommending, a security system that doesn't do anything. Edited I deleted my original response as I misread the intent of FoolMeOnce by 180°. Oh well. Cheers :sharebeer FoolMeOnce, I would lik...

Do you really need a security system? I have two young kids and it gives peace of mind. The services is basic Get SimpliSafe. Upfront cost for the system, but skip the monitoring (someone breaking in will run when they hear the alarm). ROI is only a couple of months. Simplisafe sucks. I have simpli...

May be looking at it, this way may help... $43k in dividends and down $90k for a year...is that better than $0 dividends and down $47k?...I prefer the latter. We have a winner! It took a while, but we got to the clearest response. Quickly followed by another: I'd rather have $14,000 in untaxed gain...

<<Full-time daycare anywhere within 10 miles of me is more than $1k/month.>> 3) For folks that save first and spend later, they decide what to save and spend the rest. If they do not have enough money to pay $1K/month, they do not pay 1K per month. In some areas, there is just no better option than...

<<Full-time daycare anywhere within 10 miles of me is more than $1k/month.>> 3) For folks that save first and spend later, they decide what to save and spend the rest. If they do not have enough money to pay $1K/month, they do not pay 1K per month. In some areas, there is just no better option than...

I think I see your math a little more clearly now. You are included RMD's in the total $2,750 income you listed. While income for tax purposes, they are not exogenous income for calculating necessary withdrawals but instead come from the portfolio. Ignoring this gets her to $2,463 income, and the $2...

To be clear, her expenses after housing and "water, gas, electric, phone, cable, internet, law care, property taxes, etc." will be $1,580 ($4460-2880) - is that right? Can she reduce this a bit? Also, you seen to make some rounding errors that make the situation appear worse. Her anticipated expense...

I'm glad you reached a satisfying agreement. Regardless of "compromise," she should not continue to just dump cash in a savings account beyond an emergency fund and near-term expenses (wedding, house). Her money should work for her. Almost nobody makes enough to save everything as cash and still be ...

I would take all the extra mortgage payments and direct them to the student loans that have a higher rate. Why pay down then lower rate first? (I think there may be reasons to pay even lower rate student loans first, too).

This looks perfectly doable on your income, and you'll still be in good shape with 300k in retirement accounts and still saving what looks like a good amount (how much would you still save per month?). Nothing wrong with skipping a starter home. While it looks fine, you still might be better off jus...

So here is my take on this, just for laughs. From where I sit, it looks like she has all of her ducks in a row and has her half of the money for your (as in both of you and not her ) wedding, and she has the means for her half of the house both of you plan to buy. You have $18,000 in an emergency f...

One thing that has perhaps been implied but not explicitly stated is: reinvesting the dividend maintains your same position in the fund as before the dividend; pocketing the dividend lowers your position while giving you extra cash, as if you has sold shares of that value. You have 100 shares of a f...

Claiming my SS benefits at age 70 plus RMDs will give us a big raise in a couple of years, and we may choose to increase our lifestyle a bit. Or not. Perhaps I'm missing something, but I do not understand why RMDs would affect your spending. It isn't income in the traditional sense, as in money you...

Max out any tax advantaged opportunities you have, and create more if applicatable.Good luck! Thanks! Could you expand on "create more"? Invest. Buy low and sell high. Rinse and repeat. All in less than a year. Huh? Try to time the market and create more taxable events? I think the poster meant cre...

Max out any tax advantaged opportunities you have, and create more if applicatable.Good luck! Thanks! Could you expand on "create more"? Invest. Buy low and sell high. Rinse and repeat. All in less than a year. Huh? Try to time the market and create more taxable events? I think the poster meant cre...

Having no health insurance while working a stressful job that is taxing on his body is a horrible financial decision. I would switch to the new job. Someone above provided good back-of-the-envelope after-tax numbers showing the difference isn't as big as it seems, and the health coverage closes a lo...

We use TD Ameritrade as our brokerage. The cash sweep choices offer around .05% interest. I can buy into a Vanguard money market fund, but I don't think I can have this happen automatically, nor can I automatically have that liquidated for transactions. (Am I wrong?) I got a call about switching to ...

When you get it appraised, does the girl usually come? I’d much rather spend less on a “fake” diamond ... I hear people spending 15+K on rings and it makes me slightly nauseous Don't but a manufactured diamond without her knowing. That is just a terrible, horrible, very bad, no good idea. Talk with...

One small example: if you buy AAPL stock in your Vanguard brokerage, you are not the shareholder of record of "your" shares, nor is Vanguard. Most shares in America are owned by Cede & Co, which then has a spreadsheet saying that Vanguard is entitled to such and such, and Vanguard has a spreadsheet...

the biggest disadvantage I see is a loss is permanent. you can not recover those lost dollars. this may put more pressure to obtain outsized gains in the future to "make up" for these losses. you have to do what you can live with. but, lost dollars can never be regained. If you are switching from o...

I'm at TD Ameritrade and plan to tax-loss harvest into SPDW (SPDR developed world) and SPEM (SPDR emerging markets), with purchases totaling about $250k. I recall there were some concerns last year when TDA removed Vanguard from it's commission-free list and added these SPDR ETFs instead, concerns a...

everyone here need to stop believing that..... Retirement = no earned income.... That is not true, sure some may really never work again or earn money, but most and even MMM are able to do whatever they want which in most cases creates income... When we "retire early" we really mean that we are not...

I wonder if they will have to issue refunds for all the 3.8% NIIT that was collected. Or at least, if ultimately upheld, does that mean any gains starting last Friday should not be subject to NIIT? In my opinion, that's about as unlikely as having to repay subsidies that were taken in the past. I g...